Raw Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I've been doing some raw food making tonite to get a jump on things. I whipped up this batch of Oatmeal Raisin Cookies and thought I would share the recipe with you since it doesn't take any complicated equipment or ingredients. Enjoy!

1 cup pitted dates, soak in some pure water for about an hour+ before you want to make this. Drain off but save the water before making the cookie dough.
2 cups quick oats
2 teaspoons cinnamon
about a cup of raisins, dried cranberries, other dried fruit, or if you're really going crazy, chocolate chips, carob chips, or cacao nibs

If you have a strong and mighty food processor, you might be able to get away with throwing all of the ingredients together and just whizzing it all up. If you have a finicky food processor, then try something like this:

Put drained dates into your food processor and chop them up as smoothly as you can realistically do with your machine. Add in the oats and cinnamon and continue to whiz it all up, adding some of the reserved water from the date soaking as needed. You want it to be wet enough to be able to smoosh the dough into cookie shapes. Not too wet to have the stuff hold together. If you have a smaller processor you may have to do this in batches.

Once you've got it all mixed, you've got options. :) You can form cookie shaped patties, little treat balls, or if you're in a hurry or looking for convenience just pour it into a 9"x9" pan and later you can cut it into whatever size cookie bars you need. These are quite tasty!

Chocolate Almonds

2 cups raw almonds
1 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 Tbsp. honey or agave nectar
1 Tbsp. raw chocolate powder (or nonalkalized unsweetened cocoa powder)
1/4 tsp. sea salt

Soak your raw almonds in water overnight, then drain and allow them to air dry (an hour or two). Make sure coconut oil (warm it in hot water if necessary) is liquid, and mix all remaining ingredients well. Stir in nuts. Spread evenly on dehydrator tray and dry until no longer wet/sticky, about 14-18 hours, below 116 degrees. Enjoy!

I use and recommend the Excalibur dehydrator:

Teriyaki Almonds

This is my family's favorite raw almond snack. It is surprisingly delicious and addictive! Last year my mom didn't order any raw almonds because she didn't think she would use them. Then she came to my house for Christmas and got hooked on Teriyaki Almonds! This year.....she's buying 30 pounds of almonds! (Yes, this recipe is *that* good!)

10 cups raw almonds, soaked and dehydrated at 105 degrees (or less) approx. 12 hours
½ cup chopped dates, soaked and drained
½ cup Bragg’s Liquid Aminos
1/2 cup nama shoyu (or if you don't have this, just use Bragg's instead)
2 Tbsp. raw agave nectar (or honey, if you prefer)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. cayenne or red pepper flakes

Blend all ingredients except almonds in your food processor, blender, vita-mix, BlendTec, or whatever you've got, on high until smooth. Pour into a very large bowl, add almonds and stir well. Let mixture sit for an hour to allow nuts to absorb liquid, and then stir again. Spread nuts on teflex sheets in dehydrator. Dry at 105 degrees for about 16 hours. Place nuts on mesh sheets and dry again until crunchy (about 10 hours).

Yes, it takes a few days in the planning and process, but it is extremely easy and worth it!

I recommend the Excalibur dehydrator. I love mine!


Special thanks to Green Smoothie girl who gave me this recipe.

Candied Raw Almonds

6 cups raw almonds, soaked and dehydrated at 105 degrees (or less) approx. 12 hours
2/3 cup chopped dates, soaked and drained
1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup water
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 tsp. sea salt
optional: ½ tsp. butter or rum flavoring
Blend all ingredients except almonds in your food processor, vita-mix, or blender until smooth. Pour in bowl, and stir nuts in, stirring to coat. Let nuts sit for 20 mins. to absorb liquid, and stir again. Spread nuts on teflex sheets in dehydrator. Dry at 105 degrees for about 16 hours. Place nuts on mesh sheets and dry again until crunchy (about 10 hours).

Variations: You could also use soaked pecans or other nuts or combinations of nuts!

I use the Excalibur dehydrator. It is the best!


Special thanks to Green Smoothie Girl for this recipe!

Making Chocolate Spiders

This year we decided to have a "healthy Halloween" party at our house, instead of going to someplace that was having lots of sugary items to eat. It was a HUGE success. My kids loved it, and so did our guests. This is the demo video I made when attempting to make healthy chocolate spiders. It didn't turn out quite as expected, but I still thought the video was worth sharing. :)

Recipe for this healthy chocolate:

1/8 cup raw coconut oil (liquid form)
1/4 cup raw coconut butter (artisana brand)
1/2 cup raw cacao powder, or you could also use cocoa powder or carob powder
1/4 cup honey, agave, or yacon
1/4 cup water or nut milk (or other milk, if you aren't trying to go all-raw)

You simply blend all of this in the food processor or blender, and then make shapes with it. :) Freeze or chill before eating.

As it turned out, we made these a little too thin, and they were really hard to peel off the parchment paper after they were frozen. Next time I would make the individual chocolates much thicker, possibly using a chocolate mold. Another idea would be to add some coconut, nuts, or dried fruit into the chocolate and pour it into a container, chill, and then cut into small squares like fudge. The taste is AMAZING! Even though they didn't keep their shape after we peeled them, we had no trouble finding takers for eating the parts. :)

Interview with my son, and Raw Caramel Dip--YUMMY!

One point I'd like to add to what we talked about in this video: I am not saying that you can't live your purpose in life if you are not perfectly healthy. I believe that God uses us no matter what. What we're referring to in the video is how difficult our lives can be if we do not take good care of ourselves, and create a situation where we are unable to do the things we are meant to do.

Here's the recipe for the awesome Caramel Dip:

1 cup pitted dates, soaked in pure water for about an hour
1/4-1/2 cup almond milk, or other milk or milk alternative of your choice
1 teaspoon raw coconut oil (in liquid form)
dash sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Drain off the water from the dates, the mix all of the ingredients in your blender, vita mix, or food processor until smooth. Start with a smaller amount of milk, and add just enough to get the consistency you want. Then use as a dip for apple slices, or even drizzle it over cereal or other treats! Store leftovers in the fridge. Very easy and yummy!

*the trickiest part of this recipe is that a single batch of it isn't that much, so it may be a small enough quantity that it isn't touched very much by the blades of your food processor. I experimented with several kitchen gadgets, and my best results came when I doubled the recipe and used my food processor. Then the quantity was enough that it was mixed well by the blades. You may have to try a couple different kitchen tools to see what works best for you. :)

Cabbage Leaves Instead of Tortillas or Buns!

I have read a lot of recipes for raw foods that include cabbage leaves in place of tortillas or buns. Back in the summer I took this quick video and these photos to show you how it worked when we tried it out! This is a fairly normal taco meal for us, just exchanging the cabbage leaves for the tortillas. They were nice and crunchy, held in the salsa better than a tortilla, and had a light enough flavor that we all enjoyed it.



Start with a cabbage leaf:


Add a little cheese (if you're a cheese eater):


Black beans:


Some raw nuts:


Add some raw salsa:


Roll it up and eat! (tasting is believing!)

Adding veggies to a regular dinner

I wanted to share some photos of how I often "green up" and add raw foods to a regular meal. It's simple!

Start with a bed of organic baby spinach or other salad greens:



Add some raw guacamole! (if you have taken my class or own my Super Salads book you should have the recipe)



After cooking brown rice in organic vegetable broth, I added raw pecans to it:




Add it onto the greens and guac:



Added a baked tilapia fillet and some steamed broccoli:



Adding the greens really bulks up the meal and is an easy way to get some "salad" into your diet even if you don't want a traditional salad. :) You can do this!

Questions about getting off sugar and eating more raw foods

My friend Amy sent me this email today:

I have been reading a book about giving up sugar. I am a major addict- I know I am- driving to McD for a coke....... ridiculous! I believe that it will be possibly my ticket to lose the weight i need to lose- I could use to lose at least 35 pounds but 50 would be perfect! At any rate, I was wondering about how hard it was to quit, why you decided to, and if you use a "cook book" for your raw creations? Time consuming?

thanks for answering my many questions!

Amy

Here's what I wrote back:

Hi Amy!

Good to hear from you.

I was stuck at the same weight for a long time, despite doing several different things to try to get it down. It was like it just couldn't budge. Back in March I started thinking about getting off of sugar, which I have done before. I felt like my health needed it, and thought that it might also pay off in the weight loss dept. too.

This time what I did to quit was just stopped eating anything overtly sugary (cake, cookies, etc.) but didn't go the whole nine yards on weeding out spaghetti sauce that has sugar as an ingredient. I just took it slow. (I now weed out more of these things, but still am not completely perfect at it)

I have a lot of recipes for healthy treats that I use as a bridge to get over wanting sugary stuff. I did use honey and agave nectar (still do) but was more mindful of what I was eating, and didn't just replace every sugary thing with something made with honey. I really hadn't been eating a lot of junk, but for whatever reason weight started to come off just from changing to no sugar. I lost about a pound a week like that.

In May I started really ramping up how much raw food I was eating. Again, I've done that before, usually very gung-ho and then burning out because there was so much new stuff to try to get used to. By this point in my life I've done enough raw foods that I had a lot of things we like to eat that happen to be raw, but we just eat it because we like it. So this time eating more raw has actually felt easy for the first time ever.

I've purposely not made a ton of rules for myself. I stick to the no-sugar pretty hard, just because my past experience is that once I'm off of sugar, eating something with sugar tends to give me a bad headache and sometimes other unpleasant symptoms. So I just avoid that and it hasn't been a problem.

I didn't run into hardly any problems with getting off of sugar. I don't know if it is because I did it sort of gradually or what. The main trouble I have is during PMS I want chocolate so bad that it can be tough. I now have a bunch of awesome raw chocolate treats that I make, though, so as long as I am stocked up on the ingredients I need I am all set. :)

The first time I got off of sugar it was a lot harder. We also went to all whole foods at the same time, all cold turkey, and the process was more difficult. But, really, I hit a hard spot several days into the process, and just rode it out for maybe 2-4 days, and then it was done. It is amazing how once I'm off of sugar it doesn't seem hard. I can go to a church potluck and feel no pain to pass by the desserts. :) We have had 6 birthdays in our home since me stopping the sugar and it has been no problem for me to not eat cake. (even the kind that was my favorite) Breaking that cycle is really, really nice. Also, taste buds really do change, and I am finding it really interesting to see how even healthy treats will seem too sweet to me if I have not had any for a week or two.

I just got two wonderful raw recipe books by Ani Phyo. You can find both at any book seller. Her stuff is delicious, but very easy to put together. Some other raw foods books I've had are very gormet and just too time consuming. Ani's style is just what I like. Quick and easy and tastes great. She has a lot of recipes at her web site aniphyo.com (on the blog).

I also like Serene Allison's raw recipe book Rejuvenate Your Life which is available at the Above Rubies store aboverubies.org. Some of her stuff is a lot more fussy to make, but we have many favorites from it that we love.

I have shared a lot of recipes on my blog at http://supermomshealthandwellness.blogspot.com/ and that includes raw stuff, no sugar stuff, and dehydrator recipes.

What I teach people in my healthy eating classes is that baby steps is the key to long term success, and it certainly seems to be true for me.

The raw foods aren't really time consuming, so much as sometimes needing to plan ahead. For instance, today in my dehydrator I have these raw foods:

peach spice grawnola
breakfast toast
sunflower bread
some sort of raw burger

Some of these things had ingredients that needed to be soaked ahead of time. Some of it needs to be ground (flax) or whatever. Some of it is simply mix and throw it onto the dehydrator tray. This stuff was overwhelming to me back when I first started and I had to map out which days to soak or start sprouting things or dry things or whatever. It was sort of hard to get it to all come out "on time." Now that I've done it long enough it doesn't seem that hard. I just think to myself what I'd like to have this week and just start the process and then I've got it.

With everything in my dehydrator today, I'll have food for today plus leftovers for another day. Many days I don't have to make anything "fresh" except for my morning smoothie and a salad. I typically have some sort of raw bread, crackers, and treats on hand. When it is time to eat I will sometimes just have whatever everybody else is having, but often I will just ask myself, "Is there something raw I would like to eat?" and usually there is.

Another interesting thing since making these changes in eating this time around is that I need less food to feel satisfied, and if I overeat I really feel gross (and my old normal sized portions are definitely too big now). This seems to help keep things in check.

About 3 weeks ago I added in some exercise with a friend of mine. I do a 3 mile walk workout about 3 times a week. Since adding that the weight is coming off a little faster.

This is the first time that I've done anything that is bringing me weight loss that feels like the regular way I want to live, instead of like a punishing place that I cannot wait to leave. I've lost 12 pounds since March which is a little less than a pound a week, but it seems sustainable, so I am really pleased about that.

I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!
~Erica

Papaya Creamsicle Pudding

My husband loves papaya and bought one at the grocery store a week or so ago. It was getting ripe quickly and we didn't have time to do anything with it right away, so I peeled it and froze it in chunks for future use.

Last night I created this treat for him and he really liked it.

In the food processor:
1 ripe banana
1-2 cups of papaya chunks

Mix until smooth.
Taste and see if you feel like it needs any sweetener. If so, agave nectar would be perfect.

Very easy, and of course this could work with lots of different fruits. Mango, pineapple, oranges, and peaches would all come out with that creamsicle look that is so lovely. (and you could always make popsicles out of these as well!)

Sweet Bread/Crackers in the Dehydrator!

The other day I really wanted some peanut butter on bread. But we didn't have any of our yummy Great Harvest bread, and I didn't want to eat the store bread that we had. I then got the idea to make a sweet version of the savory bread I made the other day when I also made crackers. That night I started soaking buckwheat so that I could get the project underway. Here's what I did:

Soak 2-3 cups of buckwheat for several hours or overnight.
Drain in a colander and rinse well. Then leave in the colander to sprout. (rinse morning and evening, keep colander covered lightly with a towel)
After about 2 days the buckwheat has sprouted and has little tails. Now you can use it!

In the food processor:
2 apples
2 bananas
about 3/4 cup agave nectar or honey
about a tablespoon of cinnamon
a teaspoon of vanilla
and all of the sprouted, damp buckwheat
about a half cup of flax seeds (you can grind them up in a coffee grinder, or leave whole)

Mix it all up well. If it does not seem to stick together well enough, you might want to add another banana. Taste a bit and see if it needs more agave or cinnamon. Adjust according to your preferences.

Spread onto teflex sheets for your dehydrator. Mine filled two 12"x12" trays to a nice thickness.

Dehydrate for several hours and then see it is is firm enough to cut with a pizza cutter. You don't want to put a lot of pressure on it. Just score the lines where you want your slices to be. (I do 16 slices on the 12"x12" tray--1 cut down the center, then into quarters, then turn and do the same on the other side to make bread slice-sized squares.)

When the top is dry enough, flip onto a mesh screen to finish drying. Will probably take around 24 hours to fully dry. Store in the fridge. Great for peanut butter, all-fruit jams, and other sweet treats!

As it turned out, I was gone for most of the second day when these were in the dehydrator, so they turned out crispier than I planned for them to. The good news is that this was a delicious development! This yummy stuff tastes like a cinnamon graham cracker. My boys and hubby loved it (me too) and I enjoyed it very much with some natural peanut butter on it tonite. Mmmmm mmmm good! My husband is so enthusiastic about how good it is that he mentioned being willing to eat the entire batch on his own in one sitting. I asked him not to. :)

I really love how these turned out and will definitely make it again. If I want it to be bread-i-er then I will spread it thicker next time. For now, the graham cracker-i-ness of it really appeals, and it help up great to the peanut butter spreading, which was the whole point in the first place. :)

Cranberry Coconut Cookies

I just sampled my newest raw food creation, fresh and warm from the dehydrator, and it is goooood! :)

Cranberry Coconut Cookies

Soak 2 cups of oat groats in water for several hours or overnight, then drain and rinse.

In food processor chop up at least 1 cup of fresh or frozen unsweetened cranberries. Then set aside.

In food processor combine the oat groats plus:
unsweetened shredded coconut
agave nectar (start with 3 tablespoons and then adjust as seems right to you)
cinnamon (start with 1 tablespoon and adjust as you like)
a teaspoon of vanilla
a banana

In a bowl combine the chopped cranberries with the oat groat mixture. Then drop by spoonfuls onto your dehydrator trays. (depending on how runny your batter is, you may want to start these out on teflex sheets and transfer to mesh later on)

Dehydrate at 100 degrees or less for 12-15 hours or until they are cookie-ish and easy to hold and eat. If you started your cookies out on the teflex sheets, at some point in the middle of the process move them to mesh screens so that both sides dry nicely.

Obviously, there are plenty of possible variations for this. Blueberries or other berries instead of the cranberries. You could play with the spices. You could use honey instead of the agave nectar. You could add nuts. And of course more or less of any of the ingredients I listed here can be used. Basically, as long as you can lump it together on the dehydrator trays, it'll work. I find that without the banana it has a hard time holding together.

If you want pink cookies, just throw the cranberries in with the oat groats and everything else in the food processor. They turn out very cute that way too!

Another possibility for this is to make it into granola. Just spread the cookie dough out on teflex sheets and dehydrate just like that. Use a spatula to break it up every now and then as it dries. At the end when it is totally dry, run it through the food processor a bit to break up the big chunks. Store in the fridge in a ziploc bag or glass jar.

Dehydrator Snack Crackers Recipe

I've had several people ask me about the things I make in my dehydrator, so today I'm sharing a recipe with you.

The thing about a lot of my raw crackers and treats is that it requires a little foresight. At first I found this really difficult because it was tricky to get the timing right. I mean, newbies aren't so good at planning 3 days in advance for some chip-type-things, you know?

Happily, by now I've gotten a good idea of what I like and what needs to happen, so I can keep things going without too much angst.

The first ingredient needed in this recipe is sprouted buckwheat. For that I take raw buckwheat hulls and soak them for most of a day. (in a bowl with lots of extra water) Then I drain them, rinse them well, and let them live in a couple of colanders for 2 days. I rinse them in the morning and at night, and keep them covered with a towel through the day. (try to spread the buckwheat out thinly in the colander, not all lumped up and deep in the middle) I put a plate under the colander to catch the drips.

Since sprouted buckwheat is a pretty common item in a lot of my raw recipes, I do this pretty regularly even if I don't know what I'm going to do with it. By the time the sprouts have grown for two days, I have usually gotten it figured out. If not, the drained sprouts can go into a ziploc bag in the fridge for several days, or they can be dehydrated and used for one of our favorite cookie bar treats: Buckwheatie Bars. (I'll tell you about those some other time)

For this recipe you need:

5 cups of sprouted buckwheat

3 cups of fresh veggies (I used 3 tomatoes this time, but you can use zucchini or anything else you've got around)

2 cups of soaked sunflower seeds (cover the seeds in water for a day, then drain. yet another thinking ahead step, but it's easy. If I'm not using them right away I freeze them.) You could use pine nuts or other nuts/seeds if they are more convenient for you.

1 cup of flax meal (raw flax seeds ground up in a coffee grinder)

2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. chili powder

2 tablespoons cumin

2 tablespoons honey or agave nectar

juice of 2 limes

2 pinches cayenne pepper

3/4 tsp. garlic powder

2 tablespoons olive oil

half cup pumpkin seeds (it's good to soak these ahead of time too)

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

The nice thing about this recipe is that it's not going to fly or fail based on exact measurements or if you have every single thing. You can really "cook from the hip" with this one, adding or deleting items to your liking.

You just whiz all of this up on your food processor (probably in batches since it's more than most food processors can handle), then mix it all up in a big bowl.

Spread it thinly onto teflex sheets on dehydrator trays. I do it thick enough to not have bare spaces. It thins out some once it's dehydrated too.

This recipe fills over 3 of my dehydrator trays. (they are each 1 foot square)

Once I get the batter spread onto the trays I take my pizza cutter and cut through it to score it. I go straight across for the first series of cuts, then diagonal for the second. That makes the chips turn out diamond-shaped which seems right for the flavorful flair that these chips have. :)

Dehydrate for several hours until it holds together well enough to flip it onto a dehydrator tray without the teflex sheet. (The teflex sheets keep liquid on the tray, but what you really want is for the majority of the drying time to be on the mesh dehydrator trays) It takes about 24 hours of drying for these to be done.

I save them in a large Tupperware container and this batch lasts us a few weeks, so it's worth it to me to bother to make it.

Other than the planning ahead, these are really easy to make. It probably took me 20 minutes to throw this together today, and now I'll be set with snack chips for the rest of the month, at least.

You can use these chips for dipping, although sometimes mine come out a little too thin to sustain much weight. I normally eat them instead of popcorn or some other salty or crunchy snack, plus I take them in the car if I know I'm going to be hungry and won't want to eat something junky instead.

This recipe comes from my favorite raw food recipe book by Serene Allison. it is called Rejuvenate Your Life and you can purchase the book from the resources at Above Rubies. We have many successful favorite healthy foods in our family thanks to her recipes, and things I have adapted from them.

A variation on this recipe is Garlic Naan bread. Basically I use this same recipe, except throw in some extra garlic, and spread it a little thicker on the teflex sheets. Then I use my pizza cutter to cut this into squares, approximately the size of a smallish slice of bread. Do the same thing with the drying process--let it get crisp on the one side, then flip over and let the other side get done. I sometimes have a piece or two of this garlic naan bread with raw guacamole spread on it. You can also slice up some cucumbers, tomatoes, or other veggies to add to the top. Very yummy, and surprisingly filling!

**A tip on flipping: The simplest way to flip foods from the teflex sheet to the regular mesh is to just place the mesh screen and tray on top of the food that is on the teflex sheet. Just hold them together like a big book, and turn it over. Now the crispy side is resting on the mesh tray. Lift the top tray off, and gently peel the teflex sheet away from the food. Done! :)

There you go! Let me know if you try it!

Raw Yummy-ness with my Kids!

How fun!

Today I had the spontaneous and fun experience of creating a new recipe with my kids!

Since working on eating more raw foods lately, what I've learned over the years seems to have gelled in my brain in a way that has helped it be much easier and more natural for me. I've created new recipes every couple of days, and now I see that my kids have even gotten a flair for raw recipe creation.

It all started with the gRAWnola that I made. I needed to chop it up in the food processor to break up the chunks a bit. Kids started coming by to sample the new cereal, and each of them was enthusiastic about the taste. My 10 year old said that he thought it would be a great lunch if I would mix it up in the food processor with a banana and an apple. We whipped that up and --oooh!-- Wow! It smelled so good! He was delighted. His 9 and 6 year old brothers gladly lined up with their bowls to get some too.

Next came by 16 year old who opted for the granola with a banana, some homemade plain yogurt, and some raw agave nectar. He loved it!

The ten year old came back around for another variation. It included gRAWnola, 1 kiwi, and 1 banana. Another yummy success. :)

I will admit that I had planned kind of a junky lunch for them today, but as it turned out, this was what they ate and they enjoyed it thoroughly. We found that this was very filling, so none of them was able to finish their entire bowl of goodness. No worries! We popped the leftovers into the dehydrator on teflex sheets, so it'll all just be more granola tomorrow. :)

gRAWnola Recipe!

For years I've made granola in the oven, but I've been curious about raw versions of granola as well. After seeing some crazy high prices for raw granola in the health food store, I decided to experiment with making it myself. The other day I made a mistake when trying to make some raw cookies, and ended up developing a gRAWnola recipe instead! :) Here is how it goes:

Soaked 3 cups of steel cut oat groats overnight, along with some raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds, and some flax seeds. (Just throw it all in a bowl and cover it with water. It'll expand, so be sure to have a big enough bowl and plenty of water.)

In the morning drain off the water. In the food processor throw in a banana or two, a couple cored apples, some cinnamon and nutmeg, some agave nectar or raw honey, and the oats and nuts. Process it all until smooth. Spread onto teflex sheets in the dehydrator. Dehydrate at 105 degrees or less for the whole day. (once you get to 110 degrees or so you are cooking the food and destroying the enzymes, so it's best to go for the lower temp and keep the good stuff in your food)

Throughout the day check on the progress. Use a spatula to break up the granola, flip it to expose the damp sides, etc. At the end of the day it will probably be dry enough to call it done. I then toss it back into the food processor to chunk it up better. I store it in the fridge in a ziploc bag.

Obviously, you could add more/less/different nuts, fruits, coconut, spices, etc. depending on what you're looking for. Very versatile, easy, and can be fairly inexpensive.